Friction intensifies in Stamford mayoral contest

Valentine called Simmons a ‘girl;’ she called it ‘misogynistic’

STAMFORD — The friction between Stamford’s mayoral candidates has reached a peak in the final week of the high-profile race.

The most recent clash came after unaffiliated candidate Bobby Valentine was quoted by The Associated Press as saying there was “no chance of a 35-year-old girl who grew up in a private setting, going to a private school in Greenwich, Connecticut, could possibly relate to the diverse culture of Stamford, Connecticut” better than he.

Valentine’s opponent, Democratic state Rep. Caroline Simmons, responded with a statement calling Valentine’s remark “misogynistic.”

In the six weeks since Simmons won the Democratic primary over incumbent Mayor David Martin, the candidates and their campaigns have gone back and forth over each other’s comments from interviews, press releases, mailers and debates.

On Wednesday, Valentine, who is 71, addressed his reference to Simmons as a “girl” while appearing on WNPR’s “Where We Live.”

“When I said that my competition was a girl, I was referring to her private education in a neighboring city when she was in elementary school, junior high school and high school, and if I offended anyone by mentioning her hometown or that she was referred to as a girl when she was in high school, I totally apologize for that,” Valentine said.

Valentine added that during the race, he “has been referenced as an old white man.”

The same Associated Press story included a quote from former Bethel AME Church pastor the Rev. Winton Hill describing Valentine as “an older white male who’s been very successful in life and whose personality is charismatic” and Simmons as “a young lady who still has a lot to learn, but has a whole life in front of her and who is much more representative of the future.”

Later Wednesday, Simmons’ campaign issued a statement from more than 80 women leaders calling on Valentine to “unequivocally apologize to Caroline Simmons and to all women and girls in Stamford and across our state.” Those who signed onto the statement included Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and more than two dozen state lawmakers.

“Mr. Valentine’s language is disgraceful and demeaning to women and girls,” the statement read. “It reflects an outdated mindset and attitude towards women and the contribution we make every day in our communities, state and country. Worse still is Mr. Valentine’s inability to apologize or reflect on his own words, a trait that is unbecoming of a candidate and unacceptable in our elected leaders.”

As for Simmons’ attendance at private schools, her deputy campaign manager, Arthur Augustyn, said in a statement: “We don’t believe the choices made by Caroline’s parents when she was a child have any relevancy to this mayoral race, especially compared to her years of experience serving the public in Stamford.”

Location, location, location

During the campaign, Valentine has emphasized his Stamford roots, noting that his family has lived in the city for generations, that he attended public schools and that he opened two businesses in his hometown. His mailers have also pointed out that Simmons is a Greenwich native.

Simmons has taken issue with that messaging.

“I think it’s really unfortunate that he is making a distinction and trying to divide us as a community between people who were born here and people who weren’t born here, and I think it’s really disheartening that he’s going after where I grew up as a child,” Simmons said in an interview. “I’m proud that I’ve devoted most of my adult life to serving this community in Stamford, and like so many families, my husband and I moved to Stamford and chose to raise our kids here.”

In an interview, Valentine argued that hometown is a relevant fact to raise in the race and said he didn’t understand “how mentioning someone is from Greenwich is derogatory.”

“I don’t get it, unless she has a problem being from Greenwich,” he said. “Unless there’s something that she knows that I don’t know that is bad about being from Greenwich.”

Simmons moved to Stamford and started working at the Women’s Business Development Council in 2013 after living in Washington, D.C., and working at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

She said that at the time of her move, she was considering the idea of running for office. She received a push, she said, when she went through a Yale University training program for women interested in political campaigning.

“I always thought maybe down the road I would do it, but they said, ‘Don’t wait. We need young, smart women getting involved,’ ” Simmons said.

Valentine has implied that Simmons, who ran for and won election to the state House in 2014, sees the mayor’s office as a “stepping stone.”

“I’ll just say I am so honored to be running for mayor,” Simmons said in response. “I’ve been honored to serve this city as state representative for the past seven years, and I’m really focused on the here and now and making Stamford a better city for the people of Stamford.”

Political parties

Meanwhile, one of the shots that Democrats have taken at Valentine has been over his voter registration change from Republican to unaffiliated earlier this year.

“Valentine is a life-long Republican but switched his party registration on April 5, 2021, right before announcing his candidacy for Mayor, to mislead people and improve his chances on Election Day,” reads a mailer paid for by the Stamford Democratic City Committee.

Valentine did apply to have his registration changed in April, according to the Registrars of Voters’ office. He had been registered as a Republican since at least 2002.

Valentine has said that he has supported Republicans — such as former President George W. Bush, who was managing general partner of the Texas Rangers during Valentine’s time as the team’s manager — as well as Democrats. He has said that when he voted for the first time in 1972, he cast his vote for Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, and that he campaigned for Dannel Malloy when Malloy was running for mayor of Stamford.

“I never wanted to be attached to a party or a party affiliation because my thoughts are always nonpartisan,” Valentine told Hearst Connecticut Media.

He said he considered running as either a Democrat or a Republican. He announced his campaign for mayor as an unaffiliated candidate in early May, saying in an interview at the time that he didn’t “like the division” created by party labels.

As the mayoral race has drawn attention from various media outlets, some have mentioned a 2016 report that Valentine was being floated as a potential nominee for U.S. ambassador to Japan following Donald Trump’s election as president.

“If I wasn’t talked about, then they didn’t know what they were doing, and I don’t know if they knew what they were doing,” Valentine told Hearst this week, adding that at the time, he was the “biggest conduit of baseball connections in the world.” In 2018, he received an award from then-Emperor Akihito for his “outstanding contributions to the development of Japanese baseball and to the advancement of friendly relations between Japan and the United States.”

But Valentine said he didn’t believe he “reached the ambassador status in anyone’s eyes.”

Valentine said he didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020. He has made a point of noting that Simmons’ husband, former Republican state Sen. Art Linares, was an alternate delegate for Trump in 2016.

“I’ll just say that I’m the one on the ballot, and I think that we should leave our families out of this,” Simmons said when asked about Valentine’s mentions of Linares.

Another point of contention during the race has been Simmons’ cross-endorsement by the Independent Party. On the ballot, Simmons’ name appears on the Democratic Party line as well as the Independent Party line, while Valentine’s name appears several rows down as a petitioning candidate.

One of Valentine’s mailers refers to Simmons’ appearance on the Independent Party line as an attempt to “fool voters” and claims it “conflicts with state statute, according to lawyers.”

Gabe Rosenberg, general counsel for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill’s office, said the Independent Party meets the conditions included in state statute allowing Simmons to be cross-endorsed.

City service

In recent weeks, Simmons has taken aim at Valentine’s tenure as Stamford’s director of public safety in 2011. She has asserted that Valentine “abandoned the people of Stamford” when Tropical Storm Irene hit the city that year. Valentine was in Texas the weekend of the storm for his job as an ESPN analyst.

Valentine, who oversaw the police, fire and health departments then, argued that the city was wellprepared for the storm when he left.

“You get all the (department) heads together and you figure out what their duties are in case there’s an emergency. You run through practices of what you do in case the electricity goes out, the water comes in, fires begin, whatever it may be. All the heads have things that they need to do, to execute to keep the community safe,” Valentine said. “I did that before we heard about a hurricane. That emergency management team was in place.”

There were several meetings in the days leading up to the storm to plan for contingencies, he said, and while he was in Texas, he was “remotely connected” to officials in

Stamford.

“Now, just for perspective, this last hurricane, no one was in the command center,” he added. “Everyone was remote.”

Ted Jankowski, the city’s current public safety director, said that when the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit Stamford last month, “because of the dangerous and hazardous road and weather conditions, individuals were operating virtually, basically remote from the command center, for a period of time until it was safe to travel.”

Valentine was director of public safety under Republican Mayor Michael Pavia, who is now supporting Valentine’s mayoral bid.

“I don’t give any criticism to his not being here because we really didn’t need him at that point in time,” Pavia said.

Mold in the schools

Simmons has also claimed that Valentine knew that there was mold in the city’s schools when he was public safety director and “did nothing about it.”

“I don’t know that mold — the word ‘mold’ — in 2011 was mentioned at a cabinet meeting,” Valentine said.

He added that the city’s health director at the time didn’t flag mold as an issue to him: She “never came to me and said, ‘Hey, as the director of our health, you as safety director better look at the mold.’ ”

In 2009, consultants recommended that mold assessments be performed in at least seven Stamford school buildings.

The study of the city’s school facilities covered much more than potential mold issues, Valentine said.

“It dealt with trees that might fall in the wrong place, potholes,” he said. “It talked about bathrooms that didn’t flush and might back up. It talked about everything within our system.”

Pavia, who entered office in late 2009 and served one term, said he remembered being told about a mold problem at one school in particular, Toquam Magnet Elementary School, when he was mayor. Work was done at the school to remediate the issue in 2012, after Valentine had left city government.

Six years later, mold was found in the majority of the city’s school buildings.

Valentine contended that the “negative campaigning” against him is an attempt to “distract from the inefficiencies of getting money from Hartford” for Stamford’s schools.

The Stamford mayoral election is Nov 2.